Elena's Serenade

by Campbell Geeslin

Book Overview

Who ever heard of a girl glassblower?
In Mexico, where the sun is called el sol and the moon is called la luna, a little girl called Elena wants to blow into a long pipe...and make bottles appear, like magic.
But girls can't be glassblowers. Or can they?
Join Elena on her fantastic journey to Monterrey -- home of the great glassblowers -- in an enchanting story filled with magic realism

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689849087
• ISBN13: 9780689849084
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 11.4" x 11.3"
• Age Range: 3 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

great book

This book has wonderful drawings and an imaginative story--very much in line with South American magical realism. My son loved it dubbed himself coyote (one of the characters) for two months.

Read Aloud Winner

Elena's Serenade is the first book to receive the Comstock Book Award for the year's best picture book to read aloud to older children, ages eight to twelve. Young Elena leaves her home to embark on a magical journey to Monterrey, Mexico in order to follow her dream of learning the art of glassblowing. Later, she returns home to her father, who had refused to teach her his trade because no one had ever "heard of a girl glassblower." This story celebrates Elena's uniqueness as an artist and a person, as well as the importance of pursuing a dream. With acrylic and crayons, Juan has created luminous paintings with an expressionistic, folk-art quality and a palette of desert colors. Juan's use of light is particularly noteworthy, especially in the illustrations depicting glassblowing. The rounded figure of Elena and her expressive facial features make her an attractive character. The colors, movement, and details of each painting invite one to linger over every page. In selecting this book for the Award, the Read Aloud Committee noted the lyrical quality of the text, as well as children's special appreciation of the illustrations. In addition, children were interested in the conflict between Elena and her father and also enjoyed the sprinkling of Spanish words. Readers found the Spanish-English Glossary in the front of the book helpful.

A fabulous treasure...

We picked this up at the library because I loved the illustrations and could not be happier that we did! It takes a feminist theme (that appealed greatly to my two boys)along with liberal amounts of Spanish language (glossary included) and weaves them into a magical story, complete with talking animals and fanciful glass creations. The illustrations are perfect (my three year old found them quite funny)and the prose is lilting and quite satisfying to read out loud. It incorporates so many wonderful themes---a multicultural outlook, empowerment of girls, magical happenings,the journey while disguised, etc.--that it should become a classic in schools and homes everywhere. "Bravo!"

Elena's Serenade

This book is so wonderful. We checked it out at the library and this is the only book that my daughter wanted to read. It deals with the misconception that girls can't do the same things as boys and be good at it. It showed her that she can do anything that she puts her mind to and she may even be better than boys are.